Practice and Potential
"IZUKU! IT'S HERE!" Inko Midoriya rushed to her son's room with an envelope in her hands. Startled, Izuku put his hands up in a futile attempt to stop her from crying, which obviously failed.
"Mom, I know this is an emotional moment, but we can't risk you damaging the letter!" This caused her to stop and nod before handing him the letter. Izuku grabbed it, only for his mother to keep a strong grip on it.
"Before you open this, I just want to say, I'm really proud of you, Izuku!" Said boy was shocked, to say the least. But he couldn't not see the letter so he nodded, and she let go and stepped out of his room.
Opening the envelope, the boy was surprised to see it was some sort of circular device with a blue center. Before he could question it, a hologram appeared above it. This hologram…was of the number 1 hero, All Might!
"Greetings, Young Midoriya!"
Huh? What is All Might doing at UA? Is he a teacher there? I guess that'd be the only reason he's recording this instead of the principal…Izuku got so caught up in thought that he almost completely zoned out, only to regain his senses when he heard All Might clear his throat.
"Anyway, it was a bit touch-and-go there for a while, huh? It looked like you wouldn't make the cut, until the zero pointer came along!"
"Huh?" Midoriya was confused on how an enemy worth zero-points would be useful to him.
"You see, while there were the obvious villain points, what kind of hero school would we be if that were all?"
Izuku gasped.
"Yes, that's right: In addition to villain points, there were also rescue points!" A scoreboard appeared next to All Might. "Your rescue of Young Uraraka netted you 60 hero points, more than enough to pass!" He paused. "In addition, the shockwave that destroyed the robot also destroyed 40 points worth of other robots nearby, netting you 100 points in total AND the top score!" He pointed out to Izuku. "Congratulations, Young Midoriya. This is YOUR hero academia!"
"…" Izuku took a moment to process what he'd just heard. Then, he started breaking down, just like his mother had. His room was quickly flooded with tears of joy. From the reflection of his computer, the Sentry was watching him with a proud smile.
…
A week later, Izuku was inside the hallowed halls of UA high school, looking for class 1-A. After a few minutes of searching, he found the door with his class number on it in big red letters. Opening the door, he was immediately greeted with…the sight of the blue-haired boy from the entrance exam telling off Bakugou for putting his feet on the desk. Before Midoriya could curse his own bad luck, the boy noticed him.
"Greetings! I'm Tenya Iida, from Somei Private Academy, and I must commend you for deducing the hidden portion of the exam!" Iida stuck out his hand, and Midoriya shook it hesitantly.
"I'm Izuku Midoriya, and I didn't figure out any hidden part of the exam. I just saw someone in trouble."
Iida nodded. "I see. In that case, you surely deserve to go here." Suddenly, the two were interrupted.
"Hey, I know that hair! You're the golden man who saved me!" Turning around, Izuku saw the girl that he saved during the entrance exam.
"O-oh, h-h-hey, I'm…" Izuku trailed off.
The girl clapped her hands and smiled. "I'm Ochako Uraraka! I hope we can be friends!"
"If you're just here to make friends, I suggest you leave," a mysterious voice called out from nowhere, startling everyone in the class. The trio at the doorway looked around until they saw a yellow caterpillar at the teacher's desk, drinking a juice pouch. The caterpillar unzipped, revealing it to be a sleeping bag with a…homeless man inside? Standing up, the man addressed the class.
"It took you eight seconds to quiet down. That's not acceptable. I'm Shota Aizawa, your homeroom teacher." He held up a gym uniform. "Put these on and meet me on the field."
…
"It took you all 8 minutes to change and get out here. You've a lot of room for improvement."
Uraraka raised her hand. "Um, sir, what about orientation?"
Aizawa just looked at her. "At UA, we teachers have free reign on how we teach you all. That means we don't have to waste time on pointless ceremonies and can start training you from day 1." He pulled out a small device. "Today we'll be doing quirk apprehension tests."
"Huh?" Everyone in the class voiced their collective confusion.
"Long jump, 50-meter dash, softball throw, etc. These are all the things you've done in middle school, but this time you'll do it with your quirks. The government wants to maintain the illusion that people are equal. It's impractical, and you need to know the limits of your powers." He turned to Izuku. "Midoriya, what was your softball record in middle school?"
"Uh, I think around 63-65 meters," the boy answered.
"Try it again, thus time with your quirk." The teacher threw Izuku a softball and pointed to a white mound. "You can try anything so long as you don't leave the circle."
As Izuku walked up to the mound, he reached out to the Sentry.
Hey, Sentry? Do you think you should come out for this?
I think not! If this is just a minor assessment, there is no reason for me to manifest!
Yeah, I guess you're right. No need to go plus ultra for a first day activity.
Reaching the mound, Izuku turned around to face Mr. Aizawa. "Excuse me, sensei?"
"Yes?"
"Well, I don't know if you read my file, but my quirk manifests as a separate persona, and while we can communicate mentally, we don't really see the need to go all out on the first day, so…" Izuku trailed off, nervously.
Aizawa just looked annoyed and turned to the crowd. "I see…and do you all feel this way?" Getting some nods from the group just pissed him off even more. "What a completely irrational reason to not give it your all. You think just because this is a school setting you can just relax and half-ass it? Well how about this: The person who scores the lowest out of the 20 of you…will be expelled!" His face adopted a sadistic grin.
"WHAT!?" Everyone in the group started complaining about how unfair that was, only for Aizawa to cut them off.
"Villain attacks, natural disasters, any random thing can come up and screw over the peace that you're all taking for granted. This school is to ensure you're ready for that, so if you can't handle that you can leave." He turned back to Izuku. "That's 'Plus Ultra,' so I'd suggest you and your quirk come to an agreement fast!"
"…" Izuku was silent, then-
"Very well, then!"
FLASHBANG!
Everyone had to shield their eyes as light erupted around the green-haired boy. Looking back at him, he was replaced by a taller American man with golden hair, complete with his own gold and black costume with a blue cape and a white "S" around his torso. His hands were on his hips, and he was smiling at them all, All Might style.
Picking up the ball, he turned. "And away we go!" He gave the ball a medium throw, but that medium throw was so strong that the recoil caused everyone barring the offender to fly several feet back. Mr. Aizawa was able to land on all fours, but the rest weren't so lucky. Stumbling back up, they all saw the Sentry looking at them, his smile never wavering. "Wait for it!"
FWOOSH!
Turning, the students and teacher were barely able to identify the ball coming from behind them before the Sentry caught it.
He looked at the teacher. "Well?"
"…Around the world.." the man muttered.
"…"
"Tch!…" Bakugou clenched his fists, too shocked to do anything else at such a display of power.
…
Needless to say, the Sentry scored first in all other events. For the vertical jump, he leapt to a point where humans would find it hard to breathe. For the 50-meter dash, he finished it in 0.01 seconds. He destroyed the weight machine for another event and had to be stopped for the lap runs and side-to-side jumps. The only event he scored second in, ironically, was the ball throw. That was won by Uraraka, whose quirk allowed her to float the ball, granting her a score of…
"INFINITY!" The other students were all shocked at such a display, not expecting anyone to beat the Sentry.
Afterwards, the scores were posted, and as expected, Midoriya won. Changing back to the teen, he was immediately congratulated by some of his classmates, only for them to be interrupted by someone screaming.
"NO! I'M IN LAST PLACE!" A small boy with purple grapes for hair was crying on the floor, for he performed abysmally (except for the side-to-side jumps in which he scared right behind the Sentry).
"Oh, and I lied. No one's going home."
"…"
Aizawa smiled. "That was just a rational deception to bring out the best in you!"
…
Afterward, Aizawa called out to a certain someone hiding behind a building. "You can come out now, All Might."
"EEP!" All Might shivered at being called out so suddenly, then shifted outward to appear confident.
"Ahem!…So, what did you really think of your students? I know that you expelled the entire class last year, so I doubt you were lying about the expulsion threat."
The hobo man just scowled. "It's true that I would've expelled them if I thought they were incompetent, but none of them had zero potential." At that, his gaze sharpened and he focused on All Might. "But I doubt you were just concerned with my students?"
"…The truth is, I'm a bit hesitant about that Midoriya boy. More specifically, about his unique quirk."
"Hm? His quirk is supernova, a sentient transformation quirk that can channel the energy of the sun. It's not something I've seen before, but-wait, you don't think he has any relation to him, do you?"
"I'm not sure, which is why I'm worried… Actually, I do have a good reason for this suspicioun. See, I looked into his file after his impressive debut against the zero-pointer, and get this: he was quirkless until about a year ago."
"Well, that's unusual, but he could've just had a quirk awakening later in his life. Is there anything else?"
"The thing is, his quirk isn't really similar to his parents. His mother has a low-level telekinetic quirk and his father can breathe fire. They have some relation, sure, but neither are a transformation type quirk."
"Hm…We'll keep an eye on him, sure, but it's possible he's just a next gen type with no relation to All for One. In any case, confronting him now would only result in disaster, especially with how powerful he is."
All Might nodded. "You're right about that! I'm not even sure I could beat him so easily…"
…
The next day rolled around, and Izuku was in a pretty good mood. After acing the apprehension test from the day before-although he's not conscious when Sentry is active-his classmates were all really friendly. This was something he'd never experienced before: popularity! Sure, he wasn't the best people-pleaser, but that was most likely due to the constant isolation he faced and would surely change over time.
Sitting down in Heroics 101, everyone waited patiently for their teacher to arrive, but Izuku was stoked.
He's the only one we haven't seen yet! He HAS to be teaching the heroics course, I'm sure of it!
Suddenly-
CRASH!
"I am…coming through the door, like a normal person!" Indeed, Izuku was correct: Teaching this course was his personal favorite hero and the number 1 hero in Japan, All Might!
IT'S REALLY HIM!
"Ahem…Today, you'll be working on…" he held up a card with the word "combat" on it. "…combat training!"
A row of containers all appeared from the roof, each numbered. "You all submitted design requests to the support course, yes? They're all in here! Get your designated container and meet me at Test Site A!"
…
"You all look so heroic!" All Might complemented everyone's costumes before addressing his next topic. "As I said, today you'll be doing battle training. You'll be split up into two pairs-one side heroes, the other villains-and the objective is for the heroes to capture the villains and their bomb while the villains need to prevent that from happening! Any questions?"
Immediately, several hands and voices rose up.
"All right, all right! One at a time!" He got out a piece of paper. "First, you need to capture the villains using special capture that will be distributed to the heroes later. The villains will have a map of the building and 5 minutes to prepare before the heroes arrive. You're allowed to hurt your opponents, but if it gets too serious, I'll intervene." He looked up. "Now, then! Let's draw lots!"
…
Izuku, as it turned out, had been conveniently paired with Ochako. The girl's hero costume was rather…appealing, as well.
"Hey, Deku!" She greeted her partner with a smile. It's also worth noting that she and Iida had become friends with Izuku after school yesterday, where they all walked to the train station together and exchanged contact info. There was also a misunderstanding where Ochako thought his name was Deku, but when told the truth, she said it sounded like "you can do it," so Izuku decided to let her keep it. Her costume consisted of a skintight pink and black bodysuit with a translucent helmet.
"O-ohhhh…hey, U-Uraraka! I-I-I-T's so nice to team up with you!" If she weren't so nice, she'd probably have laughed in his awkward face. Thankfully, she was a total cinnamon bun who wouldn't do that. Oh, and Izuku's costume inspired by All Might (as in it's the same as the anime, partly because I couldn't think of anything different and partly because he's a massive All Might fan, even if he didn't meet him in this scenario yet). Alas, if only fate was so kind as to give them better opponents…
"Team A will be the villains, and Team D are the heroes!" What was wrong with Team A? Well, Iida was on that team, so Izuku was conflicted about fighting a friend…and so was Kacchan.
…
"Alright, so how do you wanna play this?" Uraraka was seeking Deku's advice as they stood outside waiting for the villain team to finish setting up.
"Wellwe'dneedtotakeintoaccountIida'sspeedandattentiontothepart,meaninghe'lldefinetlytakethisextremelyseriously,butKacchanisalsoreally…" Izuku was lost in thought, barely noticing Uraraka's weirded out face.
"Um, earth to Deku?" She lightly tapped his shoulder, causing him to flinch back with a "GAH!"
"Oh, sorry…" He rubbed the back of his head. "I zone out sometimes when doing analysis."
"Wow, you're really into it, huh?"
"Actually, I'm mainly nervous about fighting Kacchan…I've known him since we were kids." Izuku looked down. "Sorry for dragging you into our fight."
"Oh, that's okay!..So, it's like a fated battle between rivals, huh? That's pretty epic, y'know!"
"…" Izuku was a bit awestruck, not expecting her to be so supportive. Before he could voice his gratitude, however, he was interrupted.
"AND BEGIN!"
The duo raced into the building, which immediately delved into many pathways and hallways, meaning that there'd be no easy way to find the bomb. The two continued forward together, before Izuku stopped at a crossroads, having a bad feeling.
"GET DO-" An explosion went off, blinding the duo. Fortunately, Izuku had reacted in time and avoided it. Unfortunately, when the smoke cleared, there stood Kacchan, fury sprawled all over his expression.
Next chapter is the awaited fight between Deku and Kacchan, as well as the class rep event. Tune in next time, on "Izuku Midoriya: The Sentry!"